Water Droplets
by GeoFount
Summary: Drip, drip. A series of oneshots focusing around Sokka and Katara.
1. The Right Words

**This is a series of drabbles/one-shots that will focus around Sokka and Katara based off of themes provided by the 30kisses website on LJ. Most will probably be Sokka+Katara but some may be Sokka/Katara. For those chapters I will post a warning.**

**You have been warned!**

* * *

**Title:** The Right Words  
**Theme:** 10  
**Word Count: **403

* * *

"I…I lost."

The beauty contest had ended. Around them the other eleven girls fan out, the winner walking away with the money they desperately needed.

Toph coughs on the dust being kicked up and comments on how stupid this had been. Katara doesn't respond. She stares at the pavilion, unmoving.

Sokka had known it would be a bad idea. He had tried to tell her so but she had only glared at him and demanded to know if he thought she was ugly. In the face of her temper, he could only sigh and let her go ahead.

Out of twelve girls, she had won tenth place.

He had known it would end like that. The Fire Nation loved things that were the same. They hated anything that was different. Katara's hair was too wild, her skin too dark, her eyes too bright for them to consider her beautiful.

"W-Well, tenth place isn't too bad. At least you didn't get last place!" Aang says, trying to be helpful.

Sokka's hand meets his forehead. _Dumby._

And as he expected, Aang's comment only made the situation that much worse. Katara turned on him, eyes hard as glass. She opened her mouth, seemed to think better of it, and closed it again. Then she straightened and stormed off.

The silence that hung around them as they made their way back to camp, just as broke as they had set out, was tense and uncomfortable. Aang looked like a scared rabbit ready to bolt. He kept throwing cursory glances Katara's way but didn't have the bravery nor the words to approach her. He had the courage to face down the Fire Lord but facing the wrath of a woman was another matter altogether.

Toph was no help either. She had thought the contest stupid to begin with and the thought of her coddling anybody almost made Sokka laugh out loud.

So it was up to him, the meat and sarcasm guy, to make things better.

He made his way to Katara's side. One would have likened this to throwing themselves into a snake pit but Sokka knew his sister. He knew exactly the words to say.

"I thought you were the most beautiful one up there."

She falters for half a second, blinking, then her shoulders loosen and her eyes lose their hardness. She smiles. "Thank you."

And even Sokka is surprised to find he wasn't lying.


	2. Rock Me to Sleep

**Title:** Rock Me to Sleep  
**Theme:** The sound of waves  
**Word Count:** 1,301

* * *

He always liked to fall asleep to the sound of the waves.

It had not always been that way. When he was young, very young, almost to the point beyond memory, he hadn't been able to hear the waves. Back then it had been the soft light of the candles and the filtered voices of his parents that had been his bedtime lullaby.

It wasn't until he was four and Katara three that he started to hear them. The voices would fade, the candle would go out, and then the waves would begin. It was a gentle paddle sound of water rushing onto the land before moving slowly back out. It reminded him of gentle whispers and gentler arms, as if he were being cradled in the hold of something holy and beautiful. It reminded him of his mother.

He was always able to sleep when he heard the waves.

-

Then there came a time when they disappeared. In the aftermath, as they huddled inside their new house beside the ashes of the old where their mother had breathed her last, they ceased to be and a cold chill held him in the palms of its hands. There were no more soft hushed voices from the other room. Occasionally there is Grangran there to check on them but she is old and her voice is like crackling paper that only keep him alert. She will go to sleep early and then there is just one lonely candle amplifying the beating drumroll of his heart in the cocoon of silence until his father, weary and so much more responsible now, blows it out.

Sokka had never known silence to be so deafening. It roars in his ears like some kind of hungry beast, eager to take what was left of their once whole family and scatter them across the barren snows that had once seemed so glorious in their brightness.

He recalls once when Grangran had told him the brightest things in life were also the things that would blind if you look too hard.

Sokka had never understood what she had meant until now.

Sleep is a faraway dream he could never reach on his own.

-

"You don't look so well."

Sokka rubs at the dark rims under his eyes. He thinks that was the understatement of the century but he is too tired to make any wisecracking jokes.

"Have you not been sleeping well?" Grangran questions. "Have you been having bad dreams?"

He wishes it were bad dreams. If it were bad dreams than that would mean he was asleep in some sort of way. He lays his head on the table. "It's the waves."

"The waves?"

Across the table Katara raises her head from the necklace she has been rubbing over and over again in her hand.

"I can't hear them."

"Can't _hear _them?" Grangran reaches out a gnarled hand and places it on his forehead. "Of course you can't hear them, darling," she says soothingly. "We're way too far from the shore to hear any sort of waves. You must be coming down with something."

Sokka thinks of his mother. He thinks of her grave under the shining white snow that could blind you if you looked at it for too long.

"You're right," he agrees after a moment. "I can't hear them. Not anymore."

-

And there is a night when he opens his gritty eyes and finds another pair peering at his own. They are shining so brightly he almost looks away before he realizes these cannot blind him.

"Do you really miss the waves?"

Katara's hand snakes under the covers, clasping his in her own. Her question seems so eager, so desperate it is almost enough to rouse him from his exhaustion.

"More than anything," he answers automatically.

She looks away, blinking, and across her face he can dimly see the emotions war with each other. Then suddenly she smiles, as if she has reached a decision, and she pats his hand, gives him a kiss on the cheek, and gently closes his eyes with her fingertips.

"Thank you," she says and before he can ask her why, she disappears without another word.

-

Later that night, the sound of the waves returns.

-

"You look better."

"I _feel_ better," Sokka agrees and he takes a deep breath, puffing out his little chest vigorously.

"You on the other hand," Grangran turns her attention to Katara, who is rubbing at a sleep deprived eyeball, "look horrible. You must have caught what Sokka had. You're not hearing waves now too are you?"

"No," says Katara, all innocence. "Only if…"

She stops herself and pretends to yawn. Her eyes glitter like the snow behind her curved lashes.

Sokka watches her, eyes narrowed suspiciously, and only tears his gaze away when she turns to look at him.

-

And that night there is the sound of waves that quiets the roaring silence and instead of sleeping Sokka pushes the blankets off himself and heads for the door. His suspicions have been raised and when Sokka is suspicious nothing, not even lack of sleep, could stop him from solving the mystery.

Outside the village he wanders and down to the shore. He stops on a rise of snow overlooking the area.

Below him, her back facing him, is little Katara. Just outside the water in her little snow shoes, moving her arms in strange movements. She is not graceful or elegant. She is clumsy, inexperienced, a baby bird just starting to find its wings. Her mother's necklace gleams from around her throat.

The water obeys regardless of her lack of expertise. At her command it draws towards her and then she will release it, allowing it to slosh back into the sea.

Sokka watches her. Katara, the last waterbender, making waves.

From that day forward, whenever Sokka thought of his mother, he saw only Katara's face.

-

_She hadn't been lying_, Sokka thinks later, much later when he is older and wiser. _She really can't hear the waves. Only if she makes them._

-

No longer is she Katara the bird learning to fly. Now she is Katara the waterbending master. She fights so beautifully it is like looking at snow and Sokka had to look away lest he be blinded by something entirely different than physical harm to his eyes.

She sits next to him as he polishes his sword and leans over to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you."

He blinks at her. "For what?"

"For reminding me."

"Reminding you of what?"

She hugs his arm, completely disrupting his polishing, and there is a pleasant smile on her graceful face. "Mother always said my waterbending was a gift to others, not to myself. I didn't really understand what she meant until…"

She trails off, mischievous, before kissing him on the cheek again and sauntering off to find Aang. Sokka holds a hand to his face and watches her leave. He doesn't need to hear her answer because he knows why she had thanked him now and all those years ago.

He had reminded her that her waterbending was a precious gift that could help others. Maybe even the world.

It had helped him after all. Why shouldn't it be able to help the world?

-

And there are nights when the day has been too long and he reaches the end of his tether and can't take anymore of the world or Avatars, or banished Princes or world-dominating kings and just wants it all to end and be done with. Those nights when his hope shrivels like an old burned down house lost in a world of snow and the silence roars in his ear.

Those are the nights he hears the waves the loudest.


	3. Finger Lickin' Good

**Title:** Finger Lickin Good  
**Theme:** candy

**Word Count: **2,290

**Warning! Some Sokka/Katara. Nothing hardcore but it's there. You've been warned!**

* * *

Aang had disappeared again.

It was not an unusual occurrence. Every few days it would happen. He would be silent for a long time just sitting there staring at the wall or the floor completely unmoving when finally he would stand up and proclaim he was going to go mediate.

They always let him go with a smile and an "Okay." They knew he was going to go look for Appa but they had learned by now to feign ignorance, for his sake if nothing else. Sokka suspected that Aang was fully aware they were pretending to not know a thing but he didn't question them and they didn't question him about that either.

Let the boy have his faults.

There was nothing to do anyway. There were a thousand different places they needed to be but nowhere in Ba Sing Se. It was a restless kind of stagnation, knowing they had places to be and things to do but unable to do any of it because they had to _wait_. Ba Sing Se drove you mad and then it kept you that way.

The city's madness had a silver lining to it though. It was so far removed from reality that it created one of its own. There was no war here. There were parades, gambling, circuses, fairs, and shops galore instead. It was, Sokka realized, a place the whole world would have been like if the Fire Nation had never charged upon their shores.

He had never seen a place like it. He had seen cities before but never one like Ba Sing Se. The North Pole, that beautiful but dreary old city, had been on the edge of war, a place that was more a military compound than a home for families and friends. Omashu had been just as serious, though Sokka did miss the mailing chutes.

In Ba Sing Se you didn't have to be self-sufficient whatsoever. If you needed food, you just walked a hundred feet to the closest food market. If you needed something done you could just hire somebody else to do it for you.

It was a sharp contrast to the South Pole, which had no market and where the citizens could only rely on themselves for food.

There were so many different things to try. Meat he had never seen before, fish that were so fat he had to get Katara to help him carry it, and the candy.

_The candy._

Candy had been a rare commodity on the South Pole. The only time he had experienced it were the times when his father had returned from the rare trip to a faraway market. He could still remember the little pink pieces. Katara had always eaten them slowly, hoarding them to make them last longer. Sokka had been the opposite. He had devoured his immediately, then spent the next week trying to think of clever ways to sneak Katara's away.

But in Ba Sing Se there was no shortage of candy. It was everywhere. Chocolate, vanilla, chocolate-drizzled-vanilla, taffy, caramel. It was a wonder the children weren't all spastic sugar addicts.

Sokka, always the wise one, had indulged in his sweet tooth right away. If they were going to be stuck here, they might as well enjoy themselves, he had told the others repeatedly.

Unable to help himself, he had pulled his usual antics when he first bought some of the foreign sweetness. He had ended up heaving into the flower beds, Katara forcing Aang to hold his hair while she flitted around getting water and scolding him. It had not been an enjoyable evening and not an event Sokka wished to repeat. Besides, when you had something readily available the desperate urge to attain it faded considerably.

Today was the day Aang went off to brood, which meant they were stuck inside until he returned.

For Sokka that meant a slew of pillows and cushions thrown on the floor to lounge on and some toffee. A bag full of it. It was a good day. He popped a piece into his mouth and chewed blissfully.

"Would you stop chewing so loud?!"

He slowly opened one eye, directing it at the person who had interrupted his candy bliss.

Katara. His sister was pacing back and forth across the boards, only stopping momentarily to snap at him. She was worried. Whenever Aang disappeared she worried. Not just about his physical safety, although that was part of it, but his emotional safety as well.

And when Katara worried she was easily irritated too.

Let the girl have her faults.

Faintly Sokka was glad Toph had wandered off to take a nap. The last thing he needed was a cat fight to ruin his candy bliss.

He continued chewing sedately, refusing to allow Katara to spoil his sugary euphoria.

Katara twitched irritably, like a cat that had detected an enemy. She forced herself to sit down on the edge of the floor and allowing her feet to dangle. "Can you be quiet for _five seconds_?"

"No." Sokka continued chewing, opening his mouth wider so it was more amplified. He popped another piece in his mouth.

"If you don't stop I'll…" She didn't finish the sentence. She left it as a hanging threat.

Unperturbed, Sokka went about his sticky delectable with more enthusiasm. He leaned towards Katara, right in her ear, and gave a good smack.

"I am going to take that candy away from you if you don't stop," she warned.

"Oh no," said Sokka, sarcastically. He popped three in his mouth this time and had to struggle to get his teeth to move. "Ist tast sew gud."

"You're disgusting." She turned her face away, nose wrinkling as he breathed right on her.

Sokka continued his smacking. He wiggled closer so she could hear it better. He could see her rage building in the way her shoulders began to tighten. Unfortunately it didn't take as long for her to explode then he had anticipated and she rounded on him before he had time to move.

"Alright, that's it! Give me that candy!"

She threw herself at him, knocking him back onto the cushions spread out the floor. She reached for the bag of candy clutched in his hand but he held it tight and tried to hide it under his body. He was laughing but there was so much candy in his mouth it came out as only a slightly wheeze. If he didn't swallow it quick he was going to suffocate. What a warrior's death that would be.

"Give me it!"

"N-" Snort. Wheeze. "o."

They continued to struggle on the cushions, Sokka rolling away and Katara prying at his fingers. They wrestled and flipped, one gaining leverage before losing it again. Katara would be on top and then on the bottom before somehow wiggling her way on top of him once more. They were well matched. Katara in her fiery determination and Sokka's ribs hurting from laughing so much, only able to use his one free hand to fend her off.

It wasn't until Katara tore the bag open that Sokka resorted to desperate measures. The candy tumbled out in a big blob and they dove for it. Sokka reached it first, scooping it up before it got too much dirt on it. Not that dirt would stop Sokka. It certainly hadn't in the past.

He immediately popped the huge glob in his mouth in front of Katara. He grinned at her, teeth stained, mouth filled to the brim with sticky, sugary goodness.

Katara was doing another good impression of an exploding volcano. Her hands were curled, fingers spread and tight like talons, hair messy and unkempt around her head, and her teeth grinding in a feral snarl.

"Oh like that will stop me!"

She reached for his face, forcing him onto his back as she straddled him. He grabbed her wrists to fend her off. They were locked in a stalemate, Katara struggling to break his grip and Sokka bucking and wheezing under her as the globby mess blocked his laughter and made him cough. Then she managed to break free with a smart twist of her wrist and her hand reached for his mouth.

He could feel her fingers slip into his mouth. One brushed his tongue, the other two becoming tangled in the mixture of saliva and candy. The next instant she made a disgusted, horrified sound and quickly retreated both out of his mouth and off of him.

"Ewww!" She stumbled away, holding her wrist and staring wide-eyed at the gooey mess on her fingers. "It's so sticky! This is so nasty! How could you possibly eat this?!"

Sokka did his best not to choke himself to death.

Katara tried frantically to wipe the mess off on the wooden wall. "It won't come off!" she cried. She shook her hand furiously in the air, a vain attempt to dislodge the sticky substance. Sokka knew from experience.

Sokka swallowed the rest of the candy in his mouth. He beckoned to her. "Come over here, I'll get it off."

She walked towards him and obediently held out her hand. Sokka clasped the wrist and eyed the sugary coated digits. Then he stuck them in his mouth and promptly began sucking on them.

Katara must not have expected the action. She straightened as if she had been given an electric shock and he felt a soft tug but his hold on her wrist kept her from pulling her hand away.

He was only getting the candy off. No candy should go to waste and what better way to remove it then this? He doubted there was any other way to remove the sticky taffy besides. He knew this from experience as well!

He continued sucking on her fingers, tongue swirling to remove every last sweet bit of candy goodness from her flesh. His eyes were closed, enjoying the sweetness, and it wasn't until he opened them a crack that he saw the expression on her face.

Her eyes were wide as saucers. She was focused entirely on him, gaze unwavering as it was cemented on his face. Her other hand was clasped around the fabric in front of her chest. He saw her swallow, mouth opening to allow a soft, shaky exhale. It almost looked like she was sweating underneath the heavy Water Tribe clothing.

Sokka had always been good at reading people. He had been the only one to be suspicious of Jet's actions. Katara was somebody he knew better than anybody. He could read her more easily than he could other people.

His mouth stilled as he looked at her. He didn't move for one long tense moment, calculating, gauging like he always did before deciding on what action to take. Then, decided, he began sucking on her fingers again but much slower, no longer after the candy. There was hardly any at all left, if at all.

His teeth grazed over her flesh, tongue swirling against her fingertips. His eyes weren't closed this time. He kept them on her face, watching her.

Her lips parted, tongue darting out to lick her lips. He could feel her pulse speed up by the wrist he still clasped.

Sokka felt a tightening in his groin, a desperate ache he had only felt as acutely as that time Suki had pushed him into a wall and held him there. He fought the urge to move his hips forward to relieve the fierce throbbing against the fabric of his own heavy clothing.

Why was she looking at him like that? And why didn't he stop? The toffee was gone by now. So why hadn't he stopped?

It must be the madness of the city. It was affecting them slowly but surely, drawing them in and enticing them. The city was the snake, the candy the apple, and they were the naïve Eve. They knew it was wrong, knew they should stop, but they didn't. They didn't want to stop.

"Hi, guys! I'm…home..."

Aang. The young Airbender had returned.

Katara stepped back so quickly she nearly tripped over a cushion. "Aang!" She stared at the boy in the doorway.

Aang glanced between them. He looked utterly confused. "What were you guys doing?"

Katara's wet hand fisted. She held it with her other hand against her chest as it had been burned. "I…We…" Her cheeks had turned scarlet. She looked anywhere but at him or Sokka. "We…that is we…We were…I- I gotta go! I have something I have to do! Bye!"

And she fled the scene before Aang could ask anymore questions. The two boys watched her flee, watched her disappear behind the door with a whip of her long braid.

Aang turned to Sokka, who looked nonchalantly back at him.

"What _were _you two doing?"

Sokka casually crossed his legs, managing to barely flinch at the pain the action caused. He smiled widely, face hurting. He held up the empty bag and shook it. "Just enjoying some candy."

-

-

-

They never spoke about the incident and they never repeated it either. They went along as if it had never happened, chalking it up to the madness the city caused. Ba Sing Se was a fruit ripe with it and they had taken a bite. It had been a harmless action of madness.

But despite what they said to convince themselves, whenever Sokka ate candy he couldn't help but look her way and Katara would quickly turn away with a blush and fight the urge to stick her fingers in her mouth.

It was just madness after all and hell maybe some madness was good every once in a while.

That was what Sokka thought anyways.

Let him have his faults.


End file.
